Huaca - Uses of The Term "huaca"

Uses of The Term "huaca"

Each separate linguistic group in the Andean empires had its own sacred places. Many of the early civilizations of Peru considered all the world to be sacred and alive; this concept meant that anything of significant beauty or strength would be called a huaca. The word pacarina is sometimes used interchangeably for these locations. A huaca can be a place honored such as a high mountain pass, an origin or emergence or place of creation (pacarina), a place of traditional significance such as a spring, a mountain top (apu) where rain and water originates, an astronomically aligned location, or a place of historical or mytho-historical significance (some the early peoples of the Andes did not differentiate between historical and sacred mythical events). A huaca could also be the residence or panaka of the deceased mummies of previous Incas. The huaca could also be the sacred location of one of the adopted (conquered) sub-kingdoms of the empire of the Incas or their preceding empires, such as the complex at Lake Titicaca. It can also refer to a specific pacarina (burial place), or a place of origin similar in definition to the origin places in the North American Southwest known as the place of emergence or Sipapu/Shipapu among the peoples which used kivas for worship (especially among the people commonly referred to as Pueblo). The conquistadors extended its meaning to encompass old structures. This meant that the ruins of Moche administrative buildings would be called huacas just as readily as would their temple.